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A big win during the regular season that sparks momentum for the rest of the year.
A returning lineup that has experience and talent to lead the team deep into the postseason.
Or, sometimes it comes in the form of an index card.
At the beginning of York Suburban's run to the PIAA Class AA boys' cross country team title, the Trojans listed personal and team goals on those index cards.
On Saturday at Hershey during the state title run, the Trojans completed their final team goal.
"Does the smile ever leave your face?" coach Ron Herman asked less than two days after capturing his first state title in 22 years at Suburban. "You just keep smiling. This is pretty cool.
"It's a far greater satisfaction than I ever thought it could be," he said. "It's been so long coming, I guess the satisfaction grew more as the years went on."
With more than two decades of experience and nine district titles to his name, Herman just had a feeling that his 2009 squad would be the one to finally break through at the state meet.
"When we sat down to outline the goals and I noticed that all of them had the same team goals," Herman said, "go undefeated, win the county championship, win the district championship and win the state championship. Everybody was on the same page."
Mission accomplished on all feats.
"It's amazing. I still can't believe it," Nick Schrading said of winning the state crown.
Schrading led the Trojans with his
"After we won districts, we adopted the motto, 'one more time.' We had one more time to win states and accomplish our goal, and it really fit because the top five was all seniors," Schrading said.
Those other four seniors included Matt Barton, who finished 21st at 17:14. Barton, who didn't start running for the team until his junior season, relishes his decision to switch from soccer to cross country two years ago.
"I'm very glad I joined the team," Barton said. "It's probably one of the best decisions I've made. I've learned so much more than I ever imagined from this team."
After getting close to state titles in the past, such as second place in 2000, Herman saw something special in Barton that he knew could help the squad.
"He was the piece I needed to complete the puzzle," Herman said of Barton.
Jacob Jones, Jeremy Saur and Kyle Cote were the other top runners for the Trojans, as they posted 76 points on Saturday, besting Quaker Valley by 23 points to claim the title.
Now, with the elusive state title behind them, what does next season hold for Herman?
"Coaching has its ever-present joys," Herman said. "Every team is different. I love to team build. What was cool this year was that we had a lot of freshmen learn from these seniors. I just told them to watch and learn."
Hopefully for Herman and those returning runners, they will have learned that sometimes before running down goals, they need to be written down and checked off, one by one.
